Sainbury's Anniversary Games

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The IAAF Diamond League is an annual track and field competition that features many events during the track and field season. This weekend, one of the biggest events in the league's history was held. The London event, normally called the London Grand Prix, was renamed the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. It is not only meant to be an Olympics-like event, it will be the last time for two years an event will be held at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

However, the event may not have come at a worse time. In the past few months, many of the top sprinters in the world have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The most notable names are Jamaican's Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown and the USA's Tyson Gay. Powell was one of Usain Bolt's biggest competitors for the last few years and held the 100 meter world record from June 2005 to May 2008. Campbell-Brown is a seven-time Olympic medalist. Gay is the second fastest man of All-Time with a 9.69 time in 2009. Both men did not medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Powell is saying he did not use PED's and Gay is cooperating with the US Doping Agency.

Usain Bolt celebrating his win in the 100 meters "A"
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Bolt, the fastest men in the world and history, during this turmoil has stated that he is clean. He also says fans can trust him. All the news surrounding many of the world's top sprinters did not affect Bolt the slightest bit. As always, he does his best under the brightest lights. In the final event of the first day of the competition, he won the 100 meters "A" event with a time of 9.85. He defeated USA's Michael Rodgers by 0.13 seconds. 

The Emsley Carr Mile is one of the best events of the London event of the Diamond League. The event began as a stand alone event in 1953 by Sir William Carr. He named the event in honor of his father. The point of the event was to produce the first four-minute mile ever. The winner signs a special trophy-book that includes the other signatures of winners, many other notable mile-runners, and a a history of the mile run. The original book was compeleted in 1980 and they are currently using a second book. The winner of the 2013 Emsley Carr Mile was Augustine Kiprono Choge of Kenya with a time of 3:50.01, a personal best. The runner-up was Djibouti's Ayanleh Souleiman, whose time of 3:50.07 was a national record. In third place, with a time of 3:50.97, was Kenya's James Kiplagat Magut.

The men's high jump was one of the most exciting events of the event. Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine, with the event all wrapped up, put the pole at 2.47 meters. If he could jump over it, it would break the world record set by Javier Sotomayer of cuba from 1993. He could not break the record, but he did put on a good show. His winning jump was at 2.38 meters with Erik Kynard with a leap of 2.36. 

Renaud Lavillenie
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In the men's pole vault, a world record was also put to the test. France's Renaud Lavillenie was the winner of the event by a long shot. The runner up, Germany's Bjorn Otto, was not even close. These two finished first and second in the 2012 Olympics, too. After having the win in the bag, Lavillenie, on his first attempt, leaped over the 6.02 meter high bar. That was a Diamond League record and best outdoor vault since 2008. It was also better the his Gold Medal winning vault during the Olympics last year. The vault was also better then He didn't stop there. He moved the bar up to 6.16 meters. The world record is 6.14 meters, set by Sergey Bubka of Ukraine in 1994. He attempted to break the record, but did not come close. 

The Sainbury's Anniversary Games was a great event for track and field, especially during this time of turmoil. It had many great moments and superstars perform at their best. This event has really lightened the mood around the world of athletics.